Coherent, consistent and successful. Those were the words used by Ben Bernanke in November 2013 to describe the Fed’s endeavours to enable the US economy to recover from the massive hits it took in 2008.

When localizing the global economy to nation-state level, there is understandably often a clear link with a country’s history. Despite its modernization Thailand has such a link, which to a large extent explains its middle income trap.